Paul Manafort is secretly sending emails from his jail cell

Don't cry for Paul Manafort — his nearly 24-hour jailing in solitary confinement is of the VIP variety.

President Trump's former campaign manager has been sending emails, making hundreds of calls on a personal telephone, and bathing in a private bathroom, a Wednesday filing from Special Counsel Robert Mueller showed.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow pointed out that the documents paint a pretty rosy picture of Manafort's confinement, all things considered. "Among the unique privileges Manafort enjoys at the jail are a private, self-contained living unit, which is larger than the other inmates' units, his own bathroom and shower facility, his own personal telephone, and his own workspace to prepare for trial," the special counsel's office wrote. "Manafort is also not required to wear a prison uniform. On the monitored prison phone calls, Manafort has mentioned that he is being treated like a 'VIP.'"

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Inmates are not supposed to send emails, but Mueller's office says that Manafort "appears to have developed a workaround." When his team visits the facility, they bring a laptop, which Manafort uses to read and compose emails. After his team leaves, the laptop connects to the internet and sends whatever Manafort typed out.

Manafort was sent to jail last month after he was accused of witness tampering following his charges of conspiracy and money laundering. He was previously under house arrest while awaiting trial, but it sounds like prison isn't cramping his style too badly.